I started by approaching some friends who I knew could play an instrument and asked for their help in advance. I managed to get the help from a friend who could play the piano at a very high level and I gave him a brief idea of what I was looking for. I said I wanted something edgy, with moments of tension and moments of release. I decided that I was going to wait until my film was fully edited and in its final form before I added the music, this way the music will fit around the film and I can control the tone and overall feel of the film to how I envision it. Before I recorded the music that my friend and I were going to put together, I decided that I would go and find specific inspirations to implement directly into my film.
All of these songs have the types of sounds that I am looking for. For example, the edgy piano at the start of 'Diavolo' is the kind of sound that I would like to use to portray Mr Fantasy throughout the opening shower scene as well as the final shots of him leaving the house. Another way I would implement these kinds of sounds would be seen with Elvis Presley's, 'The Wonder Of You'. The song maintains moments of triumphant sounds, which is fitting as the song is about a dream girl, which would be another appropriate aspect to include throughout the composition for the film.
My friend who helped me did not want his picture taken, so there will be no photographs of us in the school music studio. We worked for about two hours between lunch-times and we came up with the final piece of music. I was really pleased with how it turned out and I think that it is overall very fitting for my film, influencing and pushing the moments of tension even further.
My first draft was shown to the my class so that I could get some peer feedback in order for me to go away and make my film better. The big suggestion from my class was to make the final shot more clear, to me this was quite hard hitting as it was the shot I was most proud of. But now I see what was wrong with it, I am still happy with it and I don't think it is a bad shot, but the most impactful moment at the end does not deliver and engage with the emotional response that I was aiming for. The hand revealed at the end was not clear, and I didn't realize, maybe it is because I knew what it was, but for the audience it was just an oddly shaped shadow.
(Review from teacher)
Plan of action:
I am going to adapt to the feedback I received by re-shooting the final shot, however this time I am going to try my original plan of revealing a body instead of just a hand. I think a new shot of a more clear body/deceased will make for a more clear and chilling ending. I am also going to finish working on the music so that I can start getting everything ready so I can start to pull everything together before I begin my final.
I didn't pay give the props too much attention whilst planning my film as I thought that they would just be extra bits on the side. The most consideration that I gave to them was when I chose to replicate the shot from Se7en in which Detective Somerset is getting his things ready to start the day. I knew that Mr Fantasy was a reporter, so the most thought I put into his accessories was a notepad and pen, in addition to the knife and of course any other everyday items including a folder with some images.
But I wanted to make sure that the final shot was as impactful as it could be. Therefore I wanted too add extra details within the background, and I chose to add a callback to one of my very first inspirations. It can be seen in the picture below, I chose to frame an image of the painting 'The Son of Man' and smash the plastic so that it looked like shattered glass when placed all over the floor. I thought that this kind of detail might be interesting, and it might give the audience extra hints into the kind of film this would develop into.
The tea-cup spilled over the floor was a decision I suddenly made on the day of filming. I wanted it to look like there was a struggle in the house, but I didn't want it to look like a fight, just a small incident. So I thought that a cup on the floor would be appropriate, there were no inspirations for it, and at least none that I could think of off the top of my head. Whether it worked or not I am glad that I did it instead of not doing it.
All of the crew arrived on time and my actor arrived extra early to try on costumes, etc... so we were all ready to go. I started filming as soon as everything was ready and in place, starting with the shots that showed Mr Fantasy getting dressed. I got my actor fully dressed and prepared for the filming, the suit was a little bit too large but still fit and I was happy with how it turned out, it looked almost exactly the way I had imagined.
I then worked on the final scene, this was essential as I planned the final shot to leave a lasting and impactful impression on the audience as the opening sequence finishes. I had chosen that I was going to make the empty environment feel as still as possible, and to do that I wanted to use no extra lighting and only work with what was naturally coming in through the windows. This meant that I had to make sure there were no shadows that might appear from outside, luckily there weren't and it was a really bright and sunny day.
The original ending for the film was that there would be a reveal of a body covered in blood left inside the house, however when trying the shot for the first time it felt cheesy. The one thing I had to try really hard with my film, was to avoid making it cheesy, which it easily could become with a small change. I didn't like the reveal and opted to go for something that felt more 'Thriller' to me, in which I would reveal just a hand behind a door at the end. It felt better when I filmed it and I liked having the unexpected turn of the camera at the end as it takes away any feeling of control that the audience may have had.
I was using the storyboard heavily throughout the day of filming, both for my own reminding and also to better direct my actor, especially in the shower scene. By this time we had been working for three hours and stopped to eat lunch, my actor was having some trouble understanding what he needed to do in the shower and how he needed to do it. The storyboard was really useful as I was able to explain it whilst referencing the drawing that I had done for it. I feel like the process was made much easier for both me and the cast/crew that were helping me with the storyboard and I am glad that I put the amount of consideration into it that I had.
Overall, I think that the day of filming was a success, the only hiccup that I had was with the change of the ending and the rest ran smoothly. I failed to take pictures of the shoot for the cooking scene as there were less people to help and I had to work the camera whilst my actor was busy with the food which meant I never really got a chance to take anything to add to the post. However, we got all of the shots done over the course of a day and one extra hour the following morning. We stuck to the planned schedule and it turned out even better than I had hoped. The only thing that I feel I could have done differently was shoot more takes of the final shot with the gimble, I had the time and I thought that the takes I had done were fine, however I think it would have been better with one or two more takes and I may have to re-shoot in the near future.
Whilst working on a film during a pandemic has made health and safety precautions even greater, which meant that I had to be extra sure when planning the way that the day plays out to ensure the safety of myself, actors, crew and also the condition of property during shoots.
As someone who is accustomed to reading manga, I notice framing a lot as it is one of the key fundamentals in creating a good manga; if you can't frame right, you can't draw right. I feel the same way about films and the way shots are framed, it is a complicated art towards making a more impactful and effective moment. The way that manga is framed is very purposeful, there is never just a random placement of a panel in the middle of a page. This is so that more effect is translated through the page and artwork as the viewers eyes roll across the page in the authors desired way. Sometimes the framing choices are bizarre and definitely different to what is seen in films, for example, very impactful moments take up a greater portion of the page, or even a whole page, or sometimes even a spread across multiple pages.
(One Piece, Eichiro Oda)
(Berserk, Kentaro Miura)
(Vagabond, Takehiko Inoue)
Since I am so frequently presented with all sorts of framing styles, I have come to adopt some strange habits with my own style of framing. I typically choose to make the focus of a shot in unconventional places, for example we might expect an important shot to have an object or person centered in the shot. In my latest projects I have commonly used to make the audience feel uncomfortable or unsure, which, especially for a thriller film, is likely to be a desired effect.
To summarize this, the technique I tend to use is theRule of Thirdsin which I frame the shots whilst following a grid-guide of nine squares. This creates a large gap of empty and hollow space within the shot that leads to the effect of discomfort. Again, this is further emphasized when a focus object is placed on the lines in which The Joker is positioned on in the shot below.
(Joker, 2019)
This same style of (Rule of Thirds) framing is seen in the popular television series, Mr Robot (2015-2019). The series has a lot of shots in which main characters and tense moments are framed using the rule of thirds, creating the sense of an empty space.
(Mr Robot)
This shot look to be a moment of key realization and an important moment, traditionally, we would see a shot like this framed with the characters face in the middle and we would most likely be much closer up towards his face. However, in Mr Robot this is not the case, we are presented with a shot in which the character is placed on the left rule-of-thirds line at the bottom. This leaves a lot of empty space behind him where there are distant buildings, however since the focus of the frame is the character, we are looking in a direction that is unconventionally used for a shot like this, creating distortion and unease.
(Mr Robot)
This shot goes a step further and breaks the law of the Rule of Thirds, creating a much greater distortion in the shot as we see a moment of reflection and sorrow as the character in the bottom right corner sits sadly. This choice of framing makes him look far smaller, further enhancing the effect of a cold empty space besides him. Because this type of shot is not conventional, we get the feeling like something is wrong which makes us more anxious, which is a great emotion that a film-maker should try and instill in an audience. In addition to this, I saw a comment on the YouTube video above that says, "I think it makes the viewer feel more like a voyeur, that we are in the empty space secretly watching", and this is something I agree with and would like to try and replicate.
The goal of today was just to get a feel of the gimbals as they were an entirely new piece of technology which I have never used before and as I felt it would produce an essential part of my film I would need to get my fair share of hands on experience as soon as possible. With help from a teacher, I was given a full demonstration of how the gimbal technology works, then I was shown how I used the DJI Ronin app in order to check the balance of the camera on the gimbal, making sure that it was all “Excellent”. I learnt quickly that it comes down to the tiniest adjustments that to make the biggest of changes in balance. Then I was given my own set of a camera and gimbal and had to work the balance and make sure that it was all working fine.
(Getting comfortable with the grip and movement)
My practices went well and after a couple of tests I had everything labeled “Excellent”, which meant that I was all good to go. I had a play around with the motion and took a look at what the gimbal would be capable of in regards to shots I want to try and accomplish in my own film. I had a good sense of what to do and I was getting comfortable with the way that the whole mechanism moved, I knew the limitations of what it could and couldn’t do and I am happy with the progress I made.
(Figuring out the best way to do floor tracking shots)
Why would I reveal the killer at the very beginning?
(Se7en, 1995)
Whilst creating the narrative for my opening scene, I chose to treat it as if I was planning a film two-hours long so that I could fully flush out and accomplish the first two minutes in the way that I want to. So I knew that there were multiple ways in which I could start a thriller movie, either present the audience with a murder, a crime scene or meeting the detective/main character. But instead of creating a conventional film, I chose to oddly focus on the killer. Not a murder, but a killer getting ready for the day, which makes the opening scene all the more unique and uncomfortable for the audience.
However, the reason why I chose to go with this was because the main character is the killer, and whilst it is not uncommon for films to introduce the main character at the very beginning, it is certainly not normal to introduce a murder this early on. For example, in the film Se7en, John Doe is not introduced until there is only roughly 30 minutes left, in which he reveals himself to the police in a dramatic and shocking scene.
(Se7en, 1995)
So I think that introducing a killer right on the spot at the very start of a film is quite unsettling, especially as this would be a character that we would later follow for the rest of the film. I also think that an interesting approach to revealing the main antagonist (/protagonist) would be refreshing to anybody in the audience who expects the same formula of thriller movies again and again, and hopefully this will make my film more interesting and stand out. This is why I chose to take my film down such a strange narrative direction.
I started drawing my storyboard while working on the script, I wanted to try and carefully write and visualize each shot bit by bit. However, I soon realized that the process was taking far too long as I had spent hours making the storyboard, but I had only gotten through half of it. The process was only made longer as I was drawing the frames on paper, which was not efficient and I was also more prone to making mistakes.
And so I swapped to drawing digitally, I used my iPad and stylus which allowed me to draw with a new touch. I was working faster and the drawings were getting closer to how I visualized them in my mind. I have a drawing app called Procreate, however, I stuck to using the drawing feature on OneNote as I was able to use a storyboard template that suited the organized way that I wanted my storyboard to be.
